4,000 beagles to be rescued in Humane Society's 'largest operation ever'

There's a lot of terrible news stories around, so here's one with a happy ending — but a warning, some of the initial details are distressing.

Around 4,000 beagles are being rescued from a facility that bred and sold animals for laboratory testing purposes, after an investigation discovered that the dogs were subject to distressing and inhumane conditions. According to a court filing from May this year, this included dogs still nursing puppies being denied food; dogs being given food that was contaminated with mould, live insects, and fecal matter; dogs with treatable conditions being euthanised instead of treated, sometimes being killed inhumanely without anaesthesia; and dangerous conditions in the facility, including built-up food and animal waste and a lack of air conditioning in at least one building.

The New York Timesreported that a team of U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors who visited the facility in June last year came across one dog whose paw had been trapped in the floor for an unknown length of time — but long enough that she had begun to suffer from dehydration.

Overall, the USDA found over 70 Animal Welfare Act violations over the course of nine months of inspections.

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The facility in Cumberland, Virginia, is run by a company called Envigo, which was acquired by parent company Inotiv Inc. in Nov. 2021. Inotiv announced last month that the facility would be closed. The Humane Society also ran a seven-month undercover investigation that found more potential Animal Welfare Act violations at another Inotiv facility in Indiana, a pharmaceutical testing laboratory where animals including dogs, pigs, primates, and rodents are used to test drug toxicity.

145 dogs were seized from the Cumberland facility in May after being assessed as needing urgent or life-saving care, and a total of 446 dogs have been removed so far. Sue Bell, who is the founder and executive director of Homeward Trails Animal Rescue in Virginia, told CNN that puppies and pregnant and nursing dogs were being prioritised next for removal, with up to 250 more dogs set to be surrendered today.

How to help

The Humane Society of the United States will be transporting the thousands of remaining dogs to rescues and shelters around the country over the next few months at their own expense, and so is asking for donations to help the rescue effort. The Society calls this "historic operation" its "largest ever".

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"Finding partners who can make space and find homes for around 4,000 dogs in the summer — a time of year when animal shelters already are over-capacity — will be a feat of epic proportions," says a post on the Humane Society's blog credited to Sara Amundson, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund.

The non-profit also has resources for rescue and shelter organisations who want to put up their paws to take in dogs from the facility, and for people who would like to adopt one or more of the dogs — you can find out more on their dedicated "4,000 Beagles" info page.